The government is looking for a way to terminate the practice once and for all
Published : 03 Oct 2022, 02:34 AM
An alleyway of Dhaka’s Shahjahanpur has become a hotspot for thousands of students who take lessons from hundreds of private tutors from the capital’s prestigious schools.
The students are mostly from different branches of Ideal School and College, National Ideal School and College, and Motijheel Govt Boys’ and Girls’ High Schools. The teachers exercise giving these lessons privately in batches.
Besides Shahjahanpur, similar sights of parents bringing their children to private tutors before and after school can be seen around the famed schools of the city.
Many students find their studies in these private coaching centres are more important than what they learn in their classrooms, while parents, unsure of the assurances provided by schools, cannot but rely on these private lessons and end up piling pressure on their monthly expenditures.
Students from the second to fifth grades of Ideal School visit Butterfly Kindergarten, which is used by teachers of their school for private coaching, in Shahjahanpur and say studying there helps them “complete their syllabi”.
One of the parents “preferred” bringing her child to teachers for private coaching by teachers of the institution because it delivers “good results”.
She pointed out that the teachers provide study sheets only if the children take up their side tutoring. She stressed if the children do not write in the pattern these teachers prefer, their scores are deducted. This in turn makes the students feel lagging behind others and the parents are forced to opt for sending them for private tutoring.
Although the matter is disturbing to the guardians, they are mostly unwilling to talk about it. They think the students have become “hostages” to the class teachers. They complain that the teachers “often make students fail” for not taking lessons privately.
Motijheel Ideal School teacher Masuda Sultana, who teaches social studies, Bangla and religion privately, claimed that students were “entrusted” to her and she never pressured them to study at the private coaching centre for grades.
However, she conceded that such teachers exist.
Another parent revealed an account of her high expenditure on her child’s studies with the added pressure of private lessons. “I’ve to spend Tk 6,000 on four teachers every month. Adding school fees, tiffin costs and conveyance, I’ve to spend Tk 12,000-13,000 a month.”
“I own a home in Dhaka, so it’s not a huge pressure for me. But it’s really tough for those who pay rent,” she clarified.
Fauzia Rashedi, the principal of Ideal School and College, dismissed the parents' claim about scores being related to private lessons. “Where do you hear such nonsense? We never hear about it. Teachers of all schools give lessons privately. We inform the teachers about the government directives on such tuition.”
Private tutoring grabbed attention recently following the death of a student by suicide. Her parents alleged the student of Holy Cross School took her own life in August because she was given poor grades by a teacher after the student's refusal to take lessons from her privately.
The issue prevails in both Bangla and English medium schools. Parents of students of English medium schools said their children lean more towards private lessons than schools as private lessons provide more fidelity in their learning, especially when provided by home tutors.
Secondary and Higher Education Secretary Abu Bakr Siddique considers awareness to be the chief tool against unacceptable notions of private tutoring.
“We’re trying to establish an education system less reliant on private tutoring,” he said.
WHAT PARENTS, TEACHERS SAY
Students of Monipur High School’s Rupnagar branch are seen around bases for private tutoring around the Mirpur academy even after dark.
A seventh grader said the teachers punish them by keeping them “on their feet, beating and deducting scores”.
“The teachers provide us with all the answers if we take up their tutoring, but I don’t want to study like that. They call and harass our parents to send us to them.”
Another parent of a ninth grader of the school’s girls' branch alleged that several teachers “called up to give a business card.” School authorities reportedly took steps against several teachers upon complaints from parents.
Dharma Narayan, a mathematics teacher of the school, is one of the teachers facing such accusations. But he refuted the claims as “baseless”. Mohammad Ali Pappu, who teaches accounting, also defended himself saying: “I only give private lessons to those who are extremely interested.”
Both the teachers insisted that they would not hesitate to shut down their private practices “if the institutions asked them to do so”. However, the authorities of Monipur High School were not available for comment.
Parents of students at the Banasree branch of Ideal School’s English version alleged that the teachers often question the financial capability of their pupils to humiliate them into accepting their private tuition.
Prokash Chandra Roy, a teacher of Bangladesh and Global Studies also facing such allegations, said: “I used to teach in that way, but no longer. I’m no longer teaching the students from my school as per government directives.”
Viqarunnisa Noon School and College adopted a method to hide the students’ identities in answer sheets. Parents with children from the school say it helped minimise such misconduct from teachers.
“The school teachers still deliver suggestions for questions which appear in the tests,” a parent said.
Qamrun Nahar, the principal of the school, was not available for comment.
EXCEPTIONS
Abu Saleh Khorshed has been teaching at Motijheel Ideal School and College for 32 years. A teacher of Islam and moral teachings, Khorshed has never tutored privately, parents and teachers said.
“I think academic studies should completely be taught in classes and should not be left over for private tuition or home. I solve the problems my students face but don’t give private lessons,” he said, adding that there is no shortage of teachers.
GOVERNMENT MOVES
The Ministry of Education is well aware of the long-running private tuition trends. The policy against it is a testament to that.
It is concerned over the “private tuition business” creating financial pressure on families, distracting students from school lessons and bringing extreme damage to poor students and their parents.
It bars teachers from tutoring students of their own institution in private, as per the rules set by the government. The last directive also prohibits teachers from joining commercial private tutoring or establishing such businesses on their own.
The government's last order came in 2012 which was published as a gazette in 2019. It included provisions of suspension or cancellation of MPO, salaries, allowances and even sacking among other punishments for teachers engaging in the business.
But little effort was made to turn the rules into reality, on the contrary, the business is now booming like never before.
To put a leash on the rampant issue, the government is turning to the proposed education law, which suggests punishment for teachers giving lessons in private to students from their institutions. Education Minister Dipu Moni believes it will be able to put a lid on the growing problem.
Following the death of the student of Holy Cross, Dipu Moni said teachers were unjustly failing students who opted out of private tuition.
The ministry’s investigation into the death of the student revealed information on students being forced to take up private lessons with tougher questions, which made it difficult for them to score even to pass the exams.
WHAT THE GOVERNMENT IS SAYING
The Anti-Corruption Commission in 2017 recommended the government take punitive action against 97 Dhaka-based government school teachers for their involvement in the business of rampant private tuition.
The government, in executive action, transferred 25 of those 97 teachers outside Dhaka. But since then, the education ministry has not taken any visible steps to stop the practice.
Abu Bakr, secretary of the Secondary and Higher Education Division at the Bangladesh Ministry of Education, admitted that the government has limitations in checking the private tuition business.
Conceding that a good number of teachers in Bangladesh teachers apply several pressure tactics like grading students poorly if the students in question do not ask for the teachers’ aid in the form of private tuition, he said: “What can we [the government] do if the teachers use their household as tuition centres? They [the teachers] will say the students just came to understand their homework further. This has been the major problem in monitoring.”
Teachers, according to Abu Bakr, are taking advantage of the notion that students struggling with lesson plans are allowed to ask for assistance from teachers outside school hours.
“Everyone needs to be aware of the law and be conscious about it. We can’t raid every teacher’s house for that, can we?”
Abu Bakr, in principle, does not agree with the idea that vigilance drive could be an ideal monitoring tool against the teachers involved in the private tuition business.
“I believe in awareness campaigns to stop this practice [private tuition].”
The senior government official believes the new education curriculum, which was announced earlier this year, was designed in such a manner that the dependency on private tuition will eventually diminish.
The new curriculum will come into effect for the first, second and sixth graders in 2023. Third, fourth and ninth graders will come under the new curriculum in 2024, fifth and 10th graders from 2025 and 11th and 12th graders from 2026.
IS THERE ANY SOLUTION?
Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam, a noted expert who has dedicated a lifetime to advising the Bangladesh administration in shaping its policy on education, shared some anecdotes with bdnews24.com of how one of his relatives had received poorer grades for not asking for private tuition from a teacher at the student’s school.
In his assessment, he directly went for the jugular by blaming the astonishingly low salaries teachers receive, compared to people in other professions, for the former group’s increased interest in offering private tuition to students.
“Even an office aide to a deputy commissioner of a district receives a better salary, perks and benefits than a teacher. They [the teachers] have no other option but to opt for private tuitions and force students to come to them by applying many techniques like awarding poorer grades,” he said.
In Bangladesh, as per the government’s latest pay scale data, an assistant teacher of a government primary school receives Tk 11,300 as salary per month while an office assistant, whose minimum qualification for the job is to have an SSC degree, receives an average close to Tk 16,000, including benefits and perks.
“This [private tuition] has become such a prevalent practice that if even a school administrator like a head teacher wanted to make some reforms in this connection, they somehow end up facing allegations like defaming religion,” Prof Manzoorul said, indicating a couple of instances earlier this year of a school teacher and a college principal in Bangladesh, who had alleged that they were vindicated by their colleagues for taking a stance against private tuitions.
The retired professor of English literature at Dhaka University came up with a number of recommendations on how to put a stop to the rampant private tuition practices.
These are - increasing the salary, benefits and perks of teachers significantly, a monitoring cell in each Upazila under the education officer, regular monitoring by the ministry, and a local committee involving representatives of a locality who have a stake in education.
The objective of this process, according to Prof Manzoorul, is to take action against teachers who create unjust pressures on students to come for aid.
He is also a member of the powerful committee which has set the new curriculum for primary and secondary education for the government.
“We [the curriculum committee] wanted to make sure that teachers can’t force students for private tuition. Regular monitoring needs to take place to make that happen. The media has a role to play in monitoring as well,” he said.
Instead of a single invigilator, Prof Manzoorul posited multiple examiners to check exam papers in the school to ensure checks and balance and to use codes instead of names and class rolls to identify a student.
[Writing in English by Syed Mahmud Onindo and Adil Mahmood]